History Main / TheDeadCanDance

* An online ad for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups showed two skeletons wearing CoolShades, with the candy's paper cups as hats, dancing to ''Breakwater'''s "Release the Beast".

* ''Literature/{{Spellbreaker}}'' have an encounter where you stumble across a bunch of dancing skeletons in a graveyard who wants you to join them. And make you one of their members.

* In Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/TheGraveyardBook'', on one night a year, the dead "dance the Macabray" (''danse macabre'') with the living. Even TheGrimReaper, the Lady on the Grey, dances with the main character. The only one who doesn't dance is Silas because he is [[LiminalBeing neither living nor dead]].

* There's a ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip that invokes this by way of {{Woolseyism}}. In [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1988/11/17 the original]], Calvin and Hobbes play cowboys, and when Hobbes "shoots" Calvin, he gives him a "[[IncrediblyLamePun Death Rattle]]." In French, the translator changed it to, "It's the Danse Maraca-bre!" Feel free to groan, or ''[[GratuitousFrench gémir]].''

* In ''Videogame/AloneInTheDark1992'', a group of ghost ballroom dancers guards the pirate's key, and you must play the Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) record on the gramophone to make them dance and move away from it.

** Also "Betty Boop's Museum" has dancing skeletons from a museum exhibit.

* ''Film/ThirdSaturdayInOctoberPartV'': Jack Harding, the [[ImplacableMan implacable]] undead killer, tends to dance around in mute celebration after his kills.

* The ballroom scene in ''Ride/TheHauntedMansion'' has ghosts dancing to cheery party music from an antique organ. The graveyard scene also has a couple ghosts and skeletons dancing to the graveyard jamboree.
** Similarly, the Dutch amusement park "De Efteling" has a Haunted Mansion with the same theme where the dead dance to the "Dance Macabre".

* Zombie protagonist Ayumu in ''LightNovel/IsThisAZombie'' has been shown on a couple occasions to be a surprisingly good breakdancer.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeOnTheRun: The song that introduces El Diablo has the zombies performing a number with Creator/SnoopDogg rapping.

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* There's a ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip that invokes this by way of {{Woolseyism}}. In [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1988/11/17 the original]], Calvin and Hobbes play cowboys, and when Hobbes "shoots" Calvin, he gives him a "[[IncrediblyLamePun Death Rattle]]." In French, the translator changed it to, "It's the Danse Maraca-bre!" Feel free to groan, or ''[[GratuitousFrench gémir]].''
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* A good chunk of the Creator/VanBeurenStudios Tom & Jerry short "Wot A Night" is centered on a skeleton composer playing a piano song, prompting his other skeleton friends to dance to it.
* The "Night on Bald Mountain" segment of Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' features dead spirits dancing and cavorting.
* In the early ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Pinkeye", the boys find themselves cornered by the marauding zombies of the townspeople... who then start dancing in a ''Thriller'' parody while Chef sings about how he will make sweet love even when he's dead.
* The zombies in Miracle City are highly offended when {{WesternAnimation/El Tigre|TheAdventuresOfMannyRivera}} tells them they can't dance. They then prove to him how wrong he is with a spectacular dance number in no way reminiscent of Thriller.
* The dead dance in the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' episode "Dance of the Undead". Although, [[ScoobyDooHoax they turn out not really to be undead after all]].
* According to the ditty sung by Brom Bones in Disney's animated version of ''Literature/TheLegendOfSleepyHollow'', the reason for the Headless Horseman being so vicious is because he's so scary even the other spooks don't want him around, and they won't let him come to their parties.

* WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}} loves to dance. He and his best friend Lydia dance in several episodes, including the pilot, and quite often while levitating.

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* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hMagNuhLkk Cities in Dust]]" by Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees, during the bridge.
* In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPOM0IUsd_0 Dance In The Graveyards]]" by Music/DeltaRae, some DarkIsNotEvil necromancers (or possibly death spirits) call up spirits of the dead for one last dance with their loved ones.
* The music video for Flying Lotus' "Never Catch Me" features two [[DeathOfAChild kids]] rising out of their caskets and happily dancing their way out of the funeral hall and into their hearse.
* Music/TheAvalanches' "Since I Left You" features two old-timey miners stumbling upon a dance session between two girls and two judges. The mustachioed miner (Arthur) immediately gets up to dance his heart out, while the short miner just watches him. It's only at the end of the video that you realize this was representing Arthur dying and moving onto the afterlife, while the shorter miner doesn't because he's still clinging to life.
* [[ThisIndexIsNotAnExample Sharing a name with this trope]]: the band Music/DeadCanDance.
* Bear Ghost's song "Necromancin' Dancin'" is presumably about a necromancer who forces the rotting corpses that he resurrects to dance.
* [[WebAnimation/{{Hololive}} Mori Calliope's]] music awakens a dead corpse already buried in the ground in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5VxUvL_uBo "The Grim Reaper Is A Live-Streamer's"]] MV, whose hand arises out of it's grave just to jam out. She's heavily implied to be none other than [[FriendlyZombie Kureiji Ollie]] of the Indonesian branch of Hololive, who's been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o299fL7-ov0 known to twerk on occasion]]. Her fans, Dead Beats, in general, are represented as reanimated skeletons, who naturally "dance anyway, 'cause it's human nature".
* Nashville-based funk group Here Come The Mummies perform in-character ''as'' mummies, in a twist on the SkeletalMusician trope, and invoke this trope with their high-energy live shows. Lyrically, their DoubleEntendre-laden songs suggest that they prefer [[ILoveTheDead other activities to dancing]], or sometimes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35s-WEaeTFo&ab_channel=youyou both at the same time.]]

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* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' there's a necromantic spell called "Vanhel's Dance Macabre", which makes the undead units it's used on move faster, presumably by making them dance.
** There's also a short story set in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' world called ''Totentanz'', in which a [[OurLichesAreDifferent Liche]] ( one of the Nine Lords of Nagash) has a wager with an Arabyan vizier as to who dances better, a living human (performing the Dance of Seven Veils), or the chosen [[OurWightsAreDifferent wights]] of the Liche who dance to a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamade chamade]], and all join in...

* ''TabletopGame/{{Atmosfear}}'': The music video for "Thrill Me" features several dancing skeletons busting moves in the background.

* In Carl Orff's opera ''Der Mond'', the dead not only dance, but play ninepins and sing drinking songs.
* ''Theatre/EvilDeadTheMusical'', especially the number "Do the Necronomicon."
* The song "When the Night Wind Howls" from ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}'', performed by a chorus of ghosts.
-->''For then is the spectre's holiday\\
Then is the ghost's high noon!''

* ''Theatre/TanzDerVampire'''s title actually refers to a social event, but the vampires dance several times throughout the whole show. The best examples of this are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Tl42ShXhQ Carpe Noctem]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP1D1znWkKY Act II finale]].

* ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'': The dead do dance in "Alle tanzen mit dem Tod" ("Everyone Has Danced With Death"), and it's implied that the company - including Lucheni, the narrator - are either ghosts or the reanimated dead, used to tell the story; in several scenes where there is a pause, background characters typically slump down on the spot, looking like discarded corpses.

* The ghosts of their ancestors in ''Theatre/TheAddamsFamily'' musical.

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* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'': Floating Whirlindas. They're just dancing and minding their own business... '''VACUUM TIME!'''
** The [[VideoGame/LuigisMansion3 third game]] also has a bunch of breakdancing [[{{Mook}} Goobs]] who back up [[DiscoDan DJ Phantasmagloria]] in her encounter.
* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVI'' you can enter the Underworld and play a bone xylophone to make all of the demons dance, including some skeletons doing a chorus line! See it in all its glory [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkP5OtN0aCw here]]!
* In ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'', you get a hint for a future puzzle by watching the skeletons of Guybrush's parents dance while singing "Dem Bones" during a concussed hallucination.
* ''VideoGame/MrBones'' was a UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn platformer/rhythm game about a skeleton army raised by an evil necromancer. The only one not under his sway is the titular Mr. Bones, the resurrected corpse of a blues musician who is free from the mind control because he has music in his soul. The object of the game is to get through the haunted woods and put on a music and dance show that puts music in the souls of the other skeletons to free them.
* In VideoGame/RedDeadRedemptionUndeadNightmare you will find Seth (A crazed fortune hunter who likes talking to corpses) having a full on party with the undead, as he is one of the only characters in the game whom the zombies never harm.
* The Wii Game ''Battle of the Bands'' has as a playable band: Scariatchi - a trio of Mexican skeletons who rose to play latin music and boogie.
* ''VideoGame/GitarooMan'': The Sanbone Trio, a band of mariachi skeletons, is one of U-1's opponents. Thanks to starting their battle with a long and complex sequence where you can only defend, they're [[ThatOneLevel one of the hardest enemies in the game]].

* Deep inside a castle in ''VideoGame/TheBardsTale'', you run into two groups of zombies [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment having a dance-off]]. The moment they notice you, however, they drop everything to fight you.
-->'''Zombie dancer:''' [[DancingIsSeriousBusiness You got served!]]\\
'''The Bard:''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7hI1STc1ps What the hell?!?!]]
* ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxBeyondTimeAndSpace'': Sam & Max once investigate "the Zombie Factory", which turns out to be a nightclub for zombies created by a vampire. Open Mic Night is every night!
* The gamestop pre-order promo for ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' is a bonus level of dancing skeletons. They also sing "Dem Bones."
* The Dancing Zombies boss in ''VideoGame/MonsterParty''.
* The Dancing Zombie from ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' [[SummonBackupDancers summons a quartet of "backup dancer" mooks]] to guard him as they boogie toward your front lawn.
** Also in that game, if you grow the Tree of Wisdom high enough, it will unlock a cheat code of "dance" that makes several classes of zombie "dance" toward your position instead of walking.
* ''Burn, Zombie Burn!'' has a "Dance Gun" weapon that allows you to force the zombies to dance. While they're doing this, they won't attack you, giving you plenty of time to mow them down with a chainsaw, TNT, or other weapons.
* One of the playable characters in ''VideoGame/BustAGroove 2'' is Bi-O, a zombie who could do ''Thriller''-esque moves.

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'', this is about half of what goes on in Spookyraven Manor's Haunted Ballroom.
* Referenced in the title and an in-game poem in ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'', but only as a metaphor.#
** "In life his skin was sweet as mango / when I held him to my breast / but now we dance this [[TitleDrop Grim Fandango]] / and will for years before we rest..."
* In ''Videogame/AloneInTheDark1992'', a group of ghost ballroom dancers guards the pirate's key, and you must play the Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) record on the gramophone to make them dance and move away from it.
* ''Videogame/DiscworldII'' opens with a song and dance routine performed by skeletons.
* ''VideoGame/JudgeDreddDreddVsDeath'': In the Mega Mall level, there's a hilarious bit in the nightclub where the zombies are ignoring the people trapped inside and happily dancing to the music as long as you don't disturb them.
* Played somewhat straight in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', because a number of Ghost-type monsters can learn the moves Swords Dance and/or Rain Dance.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Skylanders}}'''': Giants'', Cynder’s Heroic Challenge is to reunite a bunch of zombies with their heads so they can have a dance party. When they do, the booming and normally intimidating announcer cheers them on.

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* [[{{Webcomic/Erfworld}} Uncroaked dancefighting.]] To "Thriller", naturally.

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* In an early version of the trope, in the 1932 WesternAnimation/BettyBoop episode, 'Minnie the Moocher', Betty runs away from home and discovers singing and dancing ghosts and skeletons.

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* The theme song for the anime adaptation of ''Manga/HakabaKitaro'', "Mononoke Dance", talks about ghosts and {{youkai}} dancing.

* Zombie protagonist Ayumu in ''LightNovel/IsThisAZombie'' has been shown on a couple occasions to be a surprisingly good breakdancer.

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* ''Film/TheRulesOfTheGame'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzQxiu_0pnQ has an actual]] ''danse macabre''.
* In ''Film/TheSeventhSeal'': The final scenes of the movie depict Death himself leading all those who died in the movie in a Dance Macabre into what-comes-next.
* ''Film/LoveAndDeath'', Boris dances with the Grim Reaper at the conclusion.

* At the end of the John Travolta movie ''Film/{{Michael}}'', the archangel softshoes off into the end credits with a ghost as his partner.

* In ''Film/WeekendAtBernies II'', despite being dead, Bernie dances when he hears music as the result of a voodoo spell.
* At one point in ''Dead and Breakfast'', the zombies surrounding the protagonists stop their assault to break into song and dance, line dancing while a zombified Zachariah And The Lobos Riders play "We're Comin' To Kill Ya".

* In ''Film/{{Fido}}'', a living woman and her family's [[ItMakesSenseInContext pet zombie]] share a dance set to the Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Put a Lid On It".
* In ''Film/CarnivalOfSouls'', the protagonist discovers that [[spoiler:the footloose dead take the loss of their dance partners SERIOUSLY.]] Shudder.
* In ''Film/AChristmasCarolTheMusical'', Marley's ghost and his fellow wandering spirits do this towards the end of the "Link By Link" musical number.
* In ''Film/TheFearlessVampireKillers'', Count von Krolock throws an elaborate ball for the previous generations of vampires. All of the vampires on the dance floor are expert in the courtly dances, and the two humans Professor Abronsius and Alfred stick out like sore thumbs when they attempt to infiltrate the dance due to their clumsiness.

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* ''Literature/NightfallSeries'': Vampires constantly throw elaborate balls.
* In Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/TheGraveyardBook'', on one night a year, the dead "dance the Macabray" (''danse macabre'') with the living. Even TheGrimReaper, the Lady on the Grey, dances with the main character. The only one who doesn't dance is Silas because he is [[LiminalBeing neither living nor dead]].
* In one of the books in the ''Literature/TheHollows'' series, Piscary's Pizzaria is turned into a vampire dance club.

* In ''Literature/JohnnyAndTheDead'', bag lady and time-traveller Mrs. Tachyon leads the ghosts in a re-enactment of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video.
* Creator/RichardMatheson's short story "Dance of the Dead" has a group of young people in a post-WorldWarIII future visiting a nightclub where corpses are made to "dance" through the use of a nerve-gas spray.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre "dance of death"]] was a popular medieval genre for literature/prints and depicted dancing Death leading a train of people from all classes and walks of life: the implication being that at death everyone is equal.

* Kalman Mikszath's novelette, ''The Deaf Blacksmith Prakovsky'' has a brief mention of three musicians who accidentally walked in on a ball of dead people. The first sign of something being amiss is the people thanking the DOCTOR for helping them make it to this wonderful party.
* In ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant: Death Bringer'', the eponymous Skeleton Detective himself shows off his dancing skills at the Requiem Ball.

* ''Film/WhenGoodGhoulsGoBad'' was a made for TV Halloween movie by R.L. Stine, the dead rise from the grave on the night of Halloween and everybody thinks it's a ZombieApocalypse. But no, it's just the reanimated corpse of a goth kid from the 1980s who wants to finally display his statue celebrating Halloween and then have an undead dance festival. Really.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Hollywood AD" invokes this trope. It is a fairly odd episode, even for ''The X-Files'', but in it, Mulder proposes that the undead are motivated to fulfill the same drives as the living, and that they might eventually get to dancing, and laughing, and love. After he and Scully walk away, and just before the credits, you see a (fake) cemetery full of the dead dancing to some lively tune.
* In ''{{Series/Lexx}}'', "the dead do not enjoy dancing"... until they're transformed into '''[[EpilepticTrees actual epileptic trees]]'''. Then they cheerfully sway back and forth, praising Oberon the Fairy King to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." [[spoiler:It's Lexx]].
* Every episode of ''Series/StrangersWithCandy'' would end with everyone in the episode dancing happily, and the series finale, after Jerri and the teachers rioted and destroyed the school, was no different. Except everyone was looking a little translucent this time.
* The ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' episode, "Dance of the Dead", written by Richard Matheson and based on his short story above.

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* Music/{{Voltaire}}'s "Day of the Dead". It's a lively tune about someone visiting Mexico during el Día de los Muertos (November 1, or the Day of the Dead/All Souls' Day), with expected results. So yes, this is ''a lot'' OlderThanRadio.

* The Kingston Trio's "Zombie Jamboree".
* Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt Kickers's biggest hit, "The MonsterMash", which is FrankensteinsMonster inventing a dance craze.
* As mentioned in the caption above Music/OingoBoingo had a "Dead Man's Party." Elfman's involvement in composing for the Burton works mentioned in "Film" adds additional cool.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UbGtjnluyY The Net Provides.]]
* "[[DemBones Skeletons]] on Parade" by Music/{{Ludo}}, apparently a reference to the Day of the Dead
* The Music/InsaneClownPosse's "The Headless Boogie" (a SpiritualSuccessor of sorts to "Monster Mash").
* ''Halloween Treat'', which was a Halloween-themed Disney clip show put together in 1982 for the then-debuting Disney cable channel, had a Dixieland jazz theme song with a "Gothic" sort of shuffle that in addition to being about equal parts goofy and ghoulish ("Tricks and treats to try tonight/....Your spirit's gonna howl tonight") is pretty danceable.

* Toni Childs has The Dead are Dancing, with a repetitive chorus about how the dead are dancing in the town.
* Tom Petty's Zombie Zoo is superficially about a goth girl dancing at the Zombie Zoo.
* The old hymn "DemBones".
-->''Dem bones better get up and dance around\\
Dem bones better get up and dance around\\
Dem bones better get up and dance around\\
Now hear the word of the Lord''

* "Move Your Dead Bones," a song from the movie ''Film/BeyondReAnimator''. Both the original video and Zarla's popular flash cartoon feature this.
* Music/BillyIdol [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG1NrQYXjLU is the all-dancing King of the Apocalypse]].
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNwCojCJ3-Q Meow]].
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FufL80hJsP8 "Bones"]] by The Killers is probably close enough.
* {{Music/Gorillaz}}'s "Clint Eastwood" features dancing zombie apes.
* Music/LindseyStirling is attacked by zombies and makes them dance to her violin in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dfZ9BXaNyE&feature=plcp the video]] for "Moon Trance".

* The song "When the Night Wind Howls" from ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}''.

* Kikuo's Music/{{Vocaloid}} composition "Shikabane no Odori", which translates to dance of the corpses.

* In an early and maybe even first version of the trope, in the 1932 WesternAnimation/BettyBoop episode, 'Minnie the Moocher', Betty runs away from home and discovers singing and dancing ghosts and skeletons.